ONUS FOR DEVELOPMENT ON YOUNGSTERS
Padres farmhands not here struggling to find workout spots
Upon packing some 230 minor leaguers off to all different corners of the country — and the world — Padres farm director Sam Geaney’s focus shifted from player development to their health and safety. The ingenuity of some, nevertheless, has brought a smile to Geaney’s face on occasion, whether it’s been seeing young Dominicans
devising ways to get their work in or watching Jacob Nix, via Twitter, building a backyard mound or the video of 20-year-old Joey Cantillo throwing in the shadows of Mount Olomana in Kailua, Hawaii, that popped onto Geaney’s phone.
In times like these, you do what you can.
You can bet the Padres will, too, one day.
“Based on working with A.J. (Preller) and working with the ownership group of Peter (Seidler) and Ron (Fowler) over the last couple years,” Geaney said, “I do know that when things are safe and when it is deemed the right time, we’re going to be very aggressive to look to get our group together and get our guys continuing on their development path.”
Of course, no one knows when that time will come.
In a typical July, Geaney’s development staff would be spread across eight affiliates. But with the minor league season officially shut down and COVID-19 numbers spiking throughout the country, getting a big-league season up and running is the obvious focus in summer camp.
That said, it’s no secret that the Padres’ plans to field a winner in the not-toodistant future hinge — perhaps as much or more than any team — on those young assets thrown into developmental purgatory in midmarch.
That’s one reason why their initial summer camp player pool includes 19 of their top-30 prospects as ranked by Mlb.com, as well as first-rounder Robert Has
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sell III just weeks after he was the first high schooler selected in the 2020 draft. Third-round pick Cole Wilcox has since joined the Padres’ player pool. This group predominantly is working at the Padres’ secondary site at the University of San Diego, but the opportunities to moonlight in bigleague, intrasquad games certainly could assist development.
“… It’s a crazy thing to think that in a normal year, you’re playing with your high school buddies, with juniors and sophomores in high school,” Padres manager Jayce Tingler said, “and a couple months later you’re in a big-league stadium and playing with some players that have, seven, eight, nine years of major league experience. I think it’s a great opportunity to not only play and perform but certainly soak in a fast-paced major league game.”
Those who do not break with the big-league team will continue their work and intrasquad games at a secondary site run by Geaney, player development director Ryley Westman, field coordinator Chris Kemp and most of the Padres’ minor league coordinators.
While injuries and coronavirus infections will mandate additions to that group during this 60-game sprint, those who do not make their way to San Diego will lean almost entirely on their own convictions to make sure 2020 isn’t essentially a zero as far as their development is concerned.
In that sense, the Padres hope their players turn to the foundations given to them upon signing professional contracts.
“I think how we’re ultimately going to be evaluated as a program,” Geaney said,
“on all the stuff we talk about annually as far as building routines with these guys, teaching them something as simple as how to activate their body, how to get in the weight room. A lot of these things are for instances like this when they are not, for a variety of reasons, when it doesn’t make sense for us to actively engage and be as much a part of that program.”
Toward that end, the Padres have remained in regular contact with their minor leaguers through various coordinators, coaches and trainers. Their health and safety, as it relates to the pandemic, leads the conversation. Beyond that, the emphasis in video conference calls has been on nutrition, conditioning and training ... not all that different than what players might tackle in an offseason, as well as specific skill improvement, whether its swing changes in batting cages or repertoire tweaks on the mound.
Even then, finding places to practice even in locales like San Antonio — as 2019 third-rounder Hudson Head found — is a challenge that players don’t face in a traditional offseason.
“These are things you take for granted in a normal year,” Geaney said, “something as simple finding a field where he can hit ... and gain access with all the high schools being closed down, a lot of it driven by municipalities to protect citizens, and our guys understand that.”
Of course, game action — to build innings, collect atbats and gain experience — matters above all.
But with talk of an extended fall league of sorts tailing off amid the latest COVID-19 spikes and Preller non-committal on allowing non-pool players to pursue independent ball opportunities, player development in 2020 — to say nothing of long-term ramifications on the other side of the pandemic — is almost entirely about personal responsibility.
“This is a time to really invest in your body and work on skill development,” Geaney said. “It’s definitely presenting a unique challenge for a lot of our young players, all of them. Even the small group I’m getting to watch now (at USD), it’s a unique experience even for them. Just going in and knowing that 2020, it doesn’t necessarily have an asterisk, but it’s going to be a unique year in all of these players’ baseball careers and all of us who work in baseball.
“It will take awhile to debrief what this all means.”